Hi,
Just scanning the forums and saw your post.
How does online gaming work? In a nutshell brilliantly!
I have tried four online games, two with monthly fee and two without.
Eve online (space sim) and Everquest ll (sword & spell) are both buy the game and get a free month then pay a monthly fee, then there was Freelancer (space sim) and Guild wars (sword & spell). Get the game and free server game play. You will not need to install any protocol software as it’s built into the games and is transparent, all very easy.
Eve and Everquest work the same (still playing Everquest II now), Get your game and install it, now the main game scenery, locations, music, monsters, etc is on your computer like any other game you have, put your registration key in to your game online, (just follow the links provided), and give a log in name and password, give your credit card details (Everquest II is run by Sony, you get 28/29 days free and then after it just charges your account for another 28 days, unless you don’t like it in which case you cancel it). Once this is done you just click on the icon on your desktop, (with your internet connection running obviously), this will then launch the log in screen, enter your log on name & password this will then automatically bring you down the update patches, they will install automatically as well, (you do nothing, light a cigar, open a can get a big Mac), the first download can be a biggi.
I leave my firewall and virus checker running all the time, although some don’t with these games, just personal choice. In the couple of years I have been playing I have only had one warning. Now Freelancer was different, because anyone including you can set up a server I was logging in on some servers got attacked constantly. Eve, Guildwars and Everquest have never been a problem for me.
Now the fun part, when the patches have downloaded, click on play and you will go to a character creation screen, choose your character, alter the looks (hair, tattoos, size colour, etc), at the end of character creation choose a name (you cannot have the same name as someone else, it wont let you use it). Then choose a server to play on, it will tell you that you are logging in and you will start at the bottom of the heap, once you choose a server in Everquest you will always get the same server and cannot change it, it will log on to it automatically when you log in. You can then choose your screen resolution music etc just like any other game.
You will see other people running around with there character name above there head. Very little info is passed across as when your character grows info is stored on the server and on your computer and it all runs fairly quick. You may get lag sometimes though especially if like me you choose an American server, but in the main it’s ok.
The one thing I will say so be warned if you find a game that you like it can be very addictive. Give it a try, Good luck
